Public participation in environmental decision-making: a case study of ecosystem restoration in South Florida

The “ecosystem” is the conceptual model guiding environmental restoration projects in the Florida Everglades, a large wetlands region in the southern United States. According to applied ecological frameworks, ecosystems are geographies (of various temporal and spatial scales) where systemic interrelationships of organisms and habitat occur. With current project estimates at 14.8 billion dollars, ecosystem restoration in South Florida represents one of the largest and most expensive environmental projects ever attempted. In this article, I provide an overview of the changes to the Florida Everglades which have led to the need for restorative interventions. I then outline the conceptual framework guiding ecosystem management in South Florida, focusing on the transformation of this framework that occurs through its institutionalization into a set of management and planning practices. The article ends with a discussion of how the “public” is conceptualized within this institutionalized ecosystem management framework, and the ramifications of this conceptualization for Everglades restoration public engagement activities.ecosystem, public participation, Everglades (Florida)

Letter from Laura I. Ogden to John Muir, 1905 Jan 8.

[in margin: Lectures]1115 Alice StreetOakland Cal.Jan 8, 1905Mr. John Muir -Dear Sir -The members of the Living Writer\u27s section of Ebell have again commissioned me - at the risk of seeming importunate - to request from you the favor of an address to the members and guests of our Club -The date given is our03506 section is March the twenty-first, from three until five P.M. We will defer the further arrangement of our Program until we receive your reply - We venture to hope it may be a favorable one. May I assure your that the study of your books in our section has been most delightful and profitable, and our wish to meet and listen to their author very sincere - Yours very respectfully,Laura I. Ogden(Mrs F.B.)Jan\u27y 8 - 190

Transnational youth mobility trajectories:an ethnography of young people with a migration background between Ghana and Germany

This thesis investigates the ‘transnational youth mobility trajectories’ of migrant youth, meaning all the moves that young people make in their lives, including migrations but also family visits, holidays, internships, and transitions between different school systems. An increasing proportion of young people around the world have a migration background, and recent research shows that many migrant youth in Europe travel regularly to their country of origin. Nevertheless, we know very little about the way mobility affects their lives. As part of the ‘Mobility Trajectories of Young Lives’ project (www.motrayl.com), this thesis focused on Ghanaian-background youth (15-25 years) living in Hamburg. It shows that migrant youth are very mobile, that the frequency and reasons for their mobility change over time, and that mobility has important effects on their lives in the country of residence. Experiences in the country of origin – including schooling, family environments, and other important relationships – can provide valuable resources, like confidence and motivation, and other forms of support that help migrant youth navigate schooling and life in the country of residence

Letter from Laura I. Ogden [Mrs. F. B.] to John Muir, 1903 Feb 11.

1175 Alice StreeetOakland Cal.Feb 11, 1903[letterhead]Mr. John Muir-Dear Sir-The Living Writer\u27s section of [illegible]bell literary club of this city - requests me to beg from you the honour of your presence, and the favor of a short address of perhaps one half [illegible]03163 duration for the afternoon of March the seventeenth - the third Tuesday of the month (March) the program to commence at three o\u27clock - We venture to ask this favor from you for the pleasure of [illegible]ell members and their guests inasmuch as the afternoon is to be devoted to Californian Writers - The subject of your address we leave entirely to your own discretion - should you find it possible to give us the pleasure might I suggest that any expense attendant upon your coming we shall gladly [illegible]ange. Hoping that your response may accord with our wishes, I am yours most sincerelyLaura I. OgdenMrs. F.B. C[illegible] Living Wes[illegible] SectionFeb. 11- 190

Competing visions of education in Timor-Leste's Curriculum Reform

Timor-Leste’s independence in 2002 marked the end of centuries of foreign control. Early post-independence education reforms successfully increased school enrolments and rebuilt education infrastructure, however, teacher qualifications and student outcomes have remained poor. The current Curriculum Reform, initiated in 2013, aims to improve educational quality in the first six years of schooling by adapting international best practices to the Timorese context, fundamentally reshaping the curriculum’s approach to language, content and pedagogy. Located at the intersection of current debates in the anthropologies of education and international development, this paper examines how diverse educational actors in Timor-Leste translate Curriculum Reform policy into practice. The research draws on two months of ethnographic fieldwork in the capital, Dili, and on the author’s professional experience as editor of the Curriculum Reform. The key finding is that, while all actors share a common goal of creating a quality education system that contributes to Timor-Leste’s development, school and reform staff translate policy into practice in inconsistent ways. The paper argues that these inconsistencies are the result of the actors’ divergent visions of education, their working conditions, and their unequal access to information about the reform. These factors are compared across the reform pillars of language, curriculum content, and pedagogy for those who create policy (reform staff) and those who are tasked with implementing it (school staff)